To Become a Chunin
by SneverusSnapers
Summary: We all know the Chunin exams are tough, so what chance do three young ninja fresh out of the academy stand against the toughest of opponents? From ice to rainbows and some jutsu a lot less pretty, every move counts. OC
1. Couldn't Be More Ready

_We all know the Chunin exams are tough, so what chance do three young ninja fresh out of the academy stand against the toughest of opponents? From ice to rainbows and some jutsu a lot less prettier, every move counts. OC_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **For all who ask, these are the chunin exams mentioned by Shikamaru and Temari when Naruto arrives back in the hidden leaf village at the beginning of Naruto Shippuden; they said they were going to host the chunin exams together, much to their dismay, so I decided it would be a nice time to slot this in. So this is set at the beginning of Shippuden. I do _not_ own Naruto or Naruto shippuden, though I do own these three young genin and an awful lot of creativity! If you have any criticism please present it in a constructive way, this is my first Naruto fic so please don't be too harsh and don't forget to sit back, relax, and enjoy the story.

* * *

><p>"- so that's why <em>I'm<em> going to ace the chunin exams and sooo become a chunin!"

Mareo and Chiko stared at their third and final counterpart, Kaida, in disbelief and then slowly turned away from her self-obsessed smile back to whatever they were doing before, which basically was fiddling and anxiously wondering when she'd actually shut up.

Kaida, despite her looks, was what she'd call 'a fully fledged ninja'. In other words, she was vain, self obsessed and nothing like any of the other young genin in her team, let alone of her age. Yes, she certainly was one of a kind. There was no doubting that. From her bright purple hair styled in a rather messy bun which she claimed, to everyone's dismay, that she _hadn't_ dyed and it had just changed colour miraculously over night ("isn't that sooo cute?"), to her angelic smile, you couldn't help but hate her and love her at the same time.

"What about you Chiko?" Kaida grinned, turning onto the quiet boy anxiously sitting next to her, fiddling with his thumbs, "why do you think you're going to become a chunin?"

The boy who looked up nervously was a pale and malnourished looking boy, thin and gangly with a timid expression on his narrow face. His fiery red hair couldn't have seemed more out of place, and the spikes which looked like they would have grown out instead flattened down so they flopped around his face and over his leaf ninja headband, the only one of the three genin that had fastened it to their forehead. Kaida had proudly displayed it around her waist, something which seemed more of a 'look how slim I am' feat than anything else, such as being a proud shinobi; Mareo's was nowhere to be seen, until you looked closer and saw it limply hanging around his wrist like a useless accessory, as if he didn't know quite where to fling it, or couldn't care less.

"I... err... well, to be perfectly honest I don't know if I have what it takes to become a chunin," mumbled Chiko, flickering his eyes downwards anxiously, "I mean, you're so good Kaida, and I'm, well..."

"Oh come on," giggled Kaida, her face flushing, "I'm not _that_ amazing. Okay, well maybe I am. But that's sooo not the point. I'm sure with me on your team you'll both be just fine, well, until we break out of teams and go solo, anyway!"

"I'm _sure_," Mareo sighed, dripping with sarcasm, though Kaida didn't seem to notice and continued to blush as if what he said really was a compliment, not a dry imitation of one.

Mareo was someone you might call different in retrospect, though you actually wouldn't notice it at the time probably. He said the right things, chipped in when he needed too, but really everything he seemed to say was sarcastic in one way or the other, so sarcastic in fact, that no-one seemed to be able to tell the difference between his sarcasm and his real life comments, so people seemed to have merged both together as one in their minds. The one thing you'd notice about Mareo if you crossed him in the street though, wasn't the way his blue hair arched around his head to almost fall in a semi-circle, or even the way it seemed to flicker between dark and light blue, no, the actual reason you'd stop and stare at Mareo was because of the bandages wrapped around his face at a diagonal, masking half of it and only showing one deep blue eye, the rest of his face hidden. Despite Kaida's constant inquisitive pestering, the bandages never came off, and every time the subject would come up Mareo would suddenly become immensely touchy around the subject.

"I wish Kakashi sensei would hurry up," a girl with pink hair muttered ruthlessly from the other side of the street, leaning against a street lamp with an expression livid enough to boil ramen in.

"That reminds me – where _is_ Oki sensei?" Kaida asked the other two, as if they would actually know anything about their sensei's strange habits.

Oki sensei was far from what you'd call predictable and also far from what you'd call sane. She had crazy tendencies of one day letting something slide with no bother or worry at all, just a mere shrug of her shoulders, and the next becoming absolutely livid and practically killing her students for doing exactly the same thing. If there was one thing to know about Oki sensei, it was you better learn from your mistakes the first time around otherwise you'd end up running laps well into the night.

"I think you mean where _isn't_ your fabulous sensei," an all too familiar voice rang through the crisp morning air where the three young genin sat on a solitary brick wall which seemed to have no purpose at all, since it was positioned randomly in an empty space, except to just be there.

"Oh what a surprise, I never saw _that _coming," sighed Mareo, unimpressed as Kaida and Chiko twisted around in awe to become face-to-face with their sensei who seemed to have been behind them all of the time.

"Oki Hashimoto the rainbow goddess at your service, my young students," beamed a tall, thin and surprisingly young looking woman. She looked about her mid twenties and had a pearly white grin fixed on her surprisingly beautiful face, not that she didn't ever mention that... just about all day, every day. Her blonde hair swung down in ringlets past her shoulders and about halfway down her back, the smile never seeming to disappear from her mouth.

"_Rainbow goddess_?" Mareo repeated with a sigh, still not bothering to turn around.

"Yes, in case you hadn't noticed I make _rainbows_!" she beamed again, as if it was the most marvellous, important and life saving skill that had ever crossed her mind.

"Be nice to Oki Sensei Mareo," snapped Kaida viciously "she's the most wonderful sensei ever, and sooo cool, what with her amazing rainbow making skills which could knock any johnin, no, ninja out cold!" The enthusiasm she had expressed in the little speech of hers was more than slightly fishy, causing Oki to narrow her eyes as is studying her for the first time.

"What do you want?" Oki asked slyly, "I see through your cunning rouse."

"Rouse?" Kaida asked innocently, a bit too innocently maybe.

"Yes, rouse. You want something; why else would you be so nice to me all of a sudden?"

"Well now you mention it..."

"Spit it out," growled Oki, her mood changing once again.

"We heard there was a chunin exam coming up and we wanted you to put down our names for it," gabbled Kaida hurriedly, creating a fractured pause as Oki slowly studied Kaida up and down yet again.

"Oh did _we_?" Oki smiled slightly menacingly as her voiced strained on the 'we', examining Chiko's shaky nod and Mareo's vacant expression, knowing full well what the 'we' was restricted to, or rather, whom.

"Err... yes," Chiko agreed under the angry glare of Kaida's, which seemed to say 'you better agree or you'll _die_', only in a less polite way. If that even was possible.

"_Of course, oh goody I'm sooo looking forward to this_," Mareo growled, mimicking Kaida's girly and flirtatious words.

"That doesn't seem like you, you're the one I had being the least pinned down to be pleased when I told you," Oki frowned in confusion, only causing Mareo to roll his eyes in disbelief, though since his back was turned to them the whole time the sneer on his face was hidden from them all.

"Tell us- tell us what Oki sensei?" stuttered Chiko quietly, only to cause a huge grin to spread across Oki's face.

"To tell you that... I've already signed you three up for the Chunin exams, if you want to of course. You may only enter as a three man team though, I warn you, so if one of you doesn't want to go for it then all of you can't go," Oki said and the looks of the three genin were phenomenal. Or rather, the look on Kaida's face was phenomenal while the other two either smiled slightly, as in Chiko's case, or vacantly stared into the distance with a slight grimace as Mareo did.

"Oh thank you so much sensei! You are sooo the best!" Kaida screamed, causing faces from the street across to swivel around to see the energetic purple haired girl leaping up and down energetically, swiping the white streak in her hair that usually covered up the right side of her face out of her eyes as she leapt towards her sensei urgently, a grin spread across her face.

"Ow!" Kaida screeched as she retracted her hand urgently from the air fizzing around Oki, bringing it back as red and swollen, "What? You burnt it? How can a lame rainbow ninja do that?"

"Oh so now I'm a 'lame rainbow ninja' am I?" teased Oki, a smile spreading across her face at Kaida's gaping expression as she held up Kaida's hand for inspection, "it's not that bad, stop whining. Or don't you want to become a chunin?"

"I do, I do, I do!" explained Kaida energetically, then she swivelled towards Chiko, "you want to be one too, _don't you_ Chiko?"

"O-okay," Chiko murmured; his face paling as he looked down at his hands, fiddling with them again.

"What about you Mareo?" Kaida and Oka asked at the same time, Oka sounding a lot more gentle than Kaida's angry glares.

"Man..." muttered Mareo under his breath, then eventually turned over to see Kaida's expectant pressurising look. "Fine, fine. It's just _what I always wanted_."

The squeal that erupted from Kaida's throat sounded like a cross of a pig just having realised it had been eating bacon and an excited child when they found out that a new hokage had been announced. In short, it was the most ecstatic squeal Kaida has made ever since she found out she had made it to be a genin, short lived when she found out who was on her team.

"Okay my little rookies, are you sure you're up to it?" Oki asked, a rather evil smile spreading across her face.

"Yes!"

"I-I suppose so Oki sensei..."

"_Couldn't be more ready."_


	2. Clear as a Rainbow

**A/N:** Okay, so no reviews and a measly amount of hits for the last chapter. Fine, sure. I can just about deal with that; I wasn't expecting to get famous overnight or anything. I guess I'm more accustomed to reviews flooding through since I'm actually doing quite well in the hunger games fandom; but hey, I'm new here. No-one knows how generally fantastic I am. Please drop off a review once you're finished then, if anyone actually has bothered to read to this chapter then you might as well pop in a review, even if you don't have a fanfiction account... please? *puppy dog eyes*

* * *

><p>One time too many, Oki sensei had let them down.<p>

"What do you _mean_ the chunin exams start tomorrow?" Kaida gasped at the notion, staring at her sensei's cherub face to find a lie. She found none.

"She means the chunin exams stat tomorrow. _Tomorrow_," Mareo sighed and shook his head in exasperation, trying to drown out the inevitable sinking feeling that seemed to flood through his stomach. So much for relaxing for the evening.

"Well, okay I admit, it's a bit short notice but I know how amazing you three can be!" squealed Oki, trying to cheer them up. From the look on their faces she wasn't exactly successful. "Time to try another tactic," Oki muttered and turned onto the three young genin, her face about as flustered as theirs, "pull yourself together, and you call yourself a shinobi? Weren't you boasting about how you were 'sooo going to ace' the chunin exam Kaida? And you Mareo... you seemed unusually upbeat about the whole idea. Even Chiko consented with barely a stammer, come on; you know you want to do this guys!"

"Oh... okay then," Chiko eventually mumbled into the stunned silence as Kaida and possibly even Mareo gawped at Oki, her pearly white teeth glistening in the rather pathetic looking sun and her thumb pointing upwards at the sky, upright in both posture and attitude. You would have had to guess really if Mareo was gawping, since the bandages masked almost every expression he made, only the rare glisten in his one showing eye would tell you whether we was contented or not. For often than not it was the former.

"Right... shall we fit in some last minute training then?" beamed an over enthusiastic Oki.

"What's the point," sighed Mareo, "Oh no, I forgot. _This is sooo my life dream."_

"Good attitude recover, I would have thought after the last time you said a pessimistic thing you would have learnt. Now I know you want to keep up your stamina and all, so what do you think about doing some mental training, preparing the mind and what-not?"

"How _incredibly _useful."

"Mareo," hissed Kaida, "we should sooo go for it, I mean..."

Her words cut off her tongue as the thought rushed through her brain, and however much she tried to mask the fact, it had still been there. _We need all the help me can get_.

"Are t-there, are there any other rookies this year?" Chiko said quietly, bending his head down to the floor even more, if that was possible.

"Nope, but who cares?" sighed Oki contently, leaning back on her hands slightly, "So then guys, lesson one – chakra types."

"C-chakra types?" Chiko stammered, briefly glancing up at Oki when he asked her.

"Yes, chakra types. Basically there's five main chakra types. Fire, earth, wind, water and lightning."

"But we already know all this sensei," Kaida whined.

"Well what you _don't_ know is that when two or more chakra types are combined it can rise to create some definitely epic jutsu," Oki said, a smile playing across her lips.

"Err... yes we did," sighed Kaida, rolling her eyes for once instead of Mareo.

"Well what you _really_ don't know is which chakra types my jutsu is."

"You mean your amazing _rainbow _jutsu?" sighed Mareo, a sneer creeping into his voice yet it remained undetected by the others.

"Think about it, well then you lot - what makes up a rainbow?" Oki smiled a bit too warmly maybe for any of the young genin's liking. Why was she being so nice to them all of a sudden?

"Err... water and h-heat?" Chiko piped up from his quiet hunched figure.

"Correct, and where do you get heat from?"

"The sun!" Kaida exclaimed happily, as if it was the greatest achievement she had ever made.

"Correct, and what is the sun in essence?"

"A giant fireball," grunted Mareo reluctantly.

"And what are fireballs made out of?" Prompted Oki.

"Fire; water and fire!" chirped Kaida suddenly, her face lighting up, "so your chakra type is water and fire?"

"Correct," Oki smiled, a faint glow of admiration in her deep blue eyes which seemed to be bottomless just like the ocean, the very thing she was named after.

"So... what kind of chakra type is ice styled jutsu then?" Kaida asked questionably.

"Aha! Glad you asked. Basically it's just water at the moment, nothing too lengthy. And you," Oki added, swivelling to Mareo, "your lightning jutsu is quite obviously lightning. No need for any stretched brains there."

"And- and me?" stuttered Chiko.

"Aha, now we come to you Chiko. Now I'm afraid, since you actually haven't shown much development to any certain style of jutsu that I simply don't know. I could get you to try out this test for it, but I think that perhaps it's best if you find out yourself in your own time."

"Oh," is all Chiko said, but it was clearly an 'oh' of slight disappointment.

"Hey sensei," Kaida suddenly butted in, "so if you have both water and fire chakra inside of you, why is it that all you can produce is lame rainbows?"

"They are not 'lame rainbows'!" Oki snapped defensively, "They are in fact a highly advanced form of genjutsu and even can stretch to ninjutsu with their ultimate destructive power, mesmerising the senses and convincing either the enemy or the beholder, depending on the jutsu cast, that they are in true peace and harmony, making them become one with the rainbow's ultimate power."

"Of course, the rainbow's _ultimate power_," parroted Mareo, clearly not impressed.

"But that doesn't answer my question sensei, how come you can only do lame rainbow gen and ninjutsu?"

"They are not _lame rain_... Oh never mind," Oki sighed reluctantly, giving in. "The fact of the matter is that I _can't_ only do rainbow gen and ninjutsu, just that that's my area of expertise. You should know by now, what with me burning your hand when it reached a certain level near me, that I can combine both fire and water together."

"Both fire and water?" parroted Chiko in fascination and awe.

"Yes- oh, I'd wish you'd stop parroting me. Anyway, indeed; I can boil water just by willing it to do so with my chakra, not just making me a _very_ good housewife but also an excellent ninja."

"An excellent ninja, right," sighed Mareo, unimpressed.

"Now I think that's just about it for this lesson. I have a very important... meeting... to attend to."

"You mean your _date_ with Gai sensei? Which you're sooo looking forward to?" sneered Kaida cruelly, a mocking look on both her face and playing across her lips.

"It is _not_ a date. Like I'd go out with a creep like that. No, we merely have to go over the details of our last mission before filing a report. I can't tell you how much I've been dreading this..."

"It's a date," whispered Kaida to Chiko under her breath in a melodious tone, giggling in her high pitched girly voice.

"Think what you want," Oki snapped in a frustrated manner while folding her arms defensively across her chest. "You have no idea the strain I have to go through to support the leaf village, going to meetings alone with... _him_."

"Ha ha sensei, you secretly fancy him, don't you?" Kaida winked playfully.

"Oh by the way Kaida, and this applies to all of you," Oki smiled sweetly, beckoning them all forward with a menacing finger, "don't keep on brushing me the wrong way or I think I'll withdraw my statement deeming you ready for the chunin exams. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir- ma'am... sensei!"

"O-oh, yes."

"_Clear as a rainbow."_


	3. I Can't Wait

**A/N:** Sorry that my writing is rather rubbish at the moment, just I haven't been able to concentrate recently. It'll get better once we get into the exams, especially the second. Thanks to my first and only reviewer, which should hopefully set the grounds for many wore to come. Hopefully... If not I might have to abandon this. I mean, if no-one's actually reading it then what's the point of doing it? But never mind... it'll hopefully never come to that.

* * *

><p>"-fail. You used the same genjutsu with the floors thing last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. I just asked around, not cheating I hope? Really gives meaning to the saying 'sooo' last year."<p>

The three young genin were standing on the so called 'third floor', which was in fact the second as Oki sensei had warned them as she sent them off (what? A little favouritism isn't cheating exactly). Kaida had just about finished showing off her 'amazing genjutsu detecting skills', in form of a tip from Oki an hour or so earlier.

The pair of menacing and slightly recognisable ninja grimaced angrily and then skulked off back to where they had come from (probably the leaf village gates by the look of it) leaving Kaida to stand, grinning triumphantly as many other ninja glared at her from other directions, ashamed they were fooled by such a basic trick and beaten by the only three rookies there.

"Chiko, Mareo, come on. Let's get going. We're sooo going to win this thing," Kaida grinned again and headed off up the stairs to the real third floor, only to be hurriedly followed by Chiko trotting behind her obediently a bit like a little puppy and Mareo skulking in both silence and self pity as he swaggered towards the other two of his team members, reluctantly dragging his feet behind him.

All eyes seemed to follow them as they moved out of the room and up to the third floor, swivelling to trace their movements. A triumphant smile broadened across Kaida's smug face as she realised all the attention they were getting.

"That showed them. Now _every_ ninja in the Chunin exams knows who we are and what we're capable of."

As she spoke those words she just happened to shove open the double doors to be confronted by a room filled with ninja. And by _filled_ I don't mean one or two, by filled I mean at least a hundred ninja crammed together in one tight space, glaring each other down as they sat on different levels with an assortment of bizarre and exotic headbands covering their foreheads. And the ones they seemed to be glaring down the most were three dark figures in the middle of the room, dressed from head to toe in sweeping green robes and their faces covered by masks, each one plain black with only slits for eyes.

"Yes, _every ninja knows who we are_," sighed Mareo reluctantly at the sight of all the attention the three ninja in the middle were getting and the fact that absolutely no-one had noticed they were even there.

"Who are they?" snapped Kaida enviously, examining their full body length robes.

Compared to her deep purple dress which went up to her thighs with a large cross symbol which flickered several shadows after it, printed onto the fabric so it appeared in several layers yet looked just like an effect of the life, the clothes they were wearing may have not been as stylish but they certainly demanded an awful lot of attention. Bright white shorts settled comfortably under her dress too, where the zigzagged edge could comfortably fit onto it.

Chiko wore a baggy white t-shirt with a strange navy blue diamond on the back and some simple black trousers to finish off his weak and rather pathetic image which was a whole lot more than that. He also had an itchy woollen jumper which looked almost identical to the t-shirt except it cut off at the wrists.

Mareo, however, had a jacket a bit like the ones a johnin would wear, only navy blue, filled with pockets littering it. Underneath that he had a plain red shirt settled by his skin, sitting there comfortably. A swell he had black trousers underneath, also littered with pockets as if he could never get enough of them. A maze of pockets and holes were throughout his outfit, several random gaps which just cut through the fabric for no apparent reason and even one pocket which, when you stuck your hand in it, made your hand get stuck in there and ensured you were snared and unable to let go from it.

"Err... I-I think they're grass ninja. Their... their headbands dictate so anyway," Chiko stuttered.

"I don't care who they are," hissed Kaida angrily, "they're evidently the ninja we sooo need to look out for."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you!"

A strange and taunting voice called from behind them and they turned to see a young girl who looked just a few years older than they were with swaying blonde hair tied in a single swinging plait behind her back, deep blue eyes set underneath her hidden leaf headband and a sweeping lilac robe reaching about to her thigh, a mini skirt concealed beneath it. She also held and unmistakable air about her and an all too familiar smile.

"You look just like-" gasped Kaida.

"Oki?" the girl smiled, a dazzling and illuminating smile just like the ones Oki would give them before she'd pulverise them for misbehaving. "Yes, I suppose I do look like her. After all, she's my aunt."

"Your aunt?" gaped Kaida in surprise.

"Yes, I believe she's your sensei. I do pity you if that is the case..."

"Oh, she's not sooo bad," Kaida dismissed with a wave of the hand as if trying to keep the ball of the conversation rolling.

"Not 'sooo' bad?" Mareo asked in disbelief, yet it only seemed to come out as yet another one of his dull and sarcastic statements rather than one of awe that Kaida could say that. He was about to add 'she's a lunatic' when Kaida spoke first.

"She only has this lame rainbow gen and ninjutsu though-" Kaida continued, only to be cut off by a sudden shriek from Oki's niece.

"Lame rainbow gen and ninjutsu? Rainbow gen and ninjutsu is the best the hidden leaf village, no, the whole of the world, has seen! Don't you understand? Rainbow gen and ninjutsu is the precise way that you can defeat an enemy with style and glamour-"

"You sound just like Oki," Mareo dryly stated, causing the girl's skin to turn a rather horrendous shade of maroon.

"I do not sound-"

"Ayame, stop messing with the rookies and come over here," a posh and uppity male voice called, the type of voice which seemed to say that it was very above everyone else and was used to getting its own way.

"Ayame?" Kaida snorted in disbelief. "You have the same name as that girl who works in Ichiraku?"

"Our parents are good friends," stiffened Ayame, glaring at Kaida hostilely again, "Anyway, Masanori calls."

"Masa-Masanori?" Chiko mumbled quietly.

"Yes, Masanori. My teammate. With him and Kin we make an inseparable and unforgettable team. You remember that, okay?"

"Ayame, Masanori and Kin. I-I've got you," Chiko stumbled over his own words, quietly stuttering until he got his message out.

"Great," Ayame grinned again, another of those grins Oki would give them which would make her seriously unpredictable and lethal at the same time. After she made sure the team had got the names down, repeating them once again, she took off to join her teammates. Just as she arrived back with them an unnerving silence suddenly settled around the room and all eyes swivelled to the hidden leaf ninja which was getting all of the attention.

"I-I know him," murmured Chiko, trying to keep his voice down which only made him sound even more quiet, if that was even possible. A stitch of recognition trickled across Kaida's face as Mareo's stayed as blank as ever.

They stared up at the man, a deep frown across his face and a cigarette hanging from his lip, puffs of smoke weakly steaming out as if the cigarette itself had started to die.

"Hello and welcome to the beginning of the Chunin exams. I, Asuma, will be your proctor for the first exam. Do you want to go in then?"

"Of course!"

"Y-yes, please."

"_I can't wait_."


	4. So Much For Being Free

**A/N:** So I have another chapter for you, and this chapter is so long I contemplated splitting it into two seperate chapters but to be perfectly honest I couldn't be bothered. So I have the first exam in one chapter, no big deal... ;P You meet some more candidates here and you'll see the interesting (if slightly boring) turn of events. But soon it'll be the second exam and into my forte, so don't fear... super-Snev is here! Thanks to my two reviewers (and one constant one - Almiaranger), you're all that keeps me going and if you were to stop I'd probably stop too. So no pressure... xD

* * *

><p>"You may begin!" Asuma called through the dense crowd of candidates, the rules having just been announced and the first written exam sprung into session. All they had to do was not fail completely and somehow together muster up enough points as a team to pass it, simple. The only problem was that the questions did not exactly look simple.<p>

"Calculate the area of shuriken A if shuriken B is twice the area of kunai A. However, while kunai A and kunai B are both the same shape unlike shuriken A and shuriken B, kunai A has three quarters of the area of kunai B," Kaida muttered under her breath in disbelief and as she scanned the question paper her eyes seemed to widen any more.

"This is _so_ easy," murmured Mareo sarcastically while Chiko paled slightly as he read through the questions, which was quite a feat considering how pale he already was.

All eyes read the questions in awe as one to nine got worse and worse the more they read. There was a pause suddenly as the realisation of shock struck many of the candidates where they sat. This was... impossible! How were they expected to do anything like this under such pressure and at such a high level? Was this really what was required if you were to become a chunin?

Suddenly a hand struck the air, causing many genin around the owner of it to jump in surprise and the eagle eyed chunin stationed like hawks around the crop of candidates suddenly leapt and started dotting manically, as if someone had just tried to cheat in all of the minor havoc. They probably had.

"Yes?" Asuma asked the owner of the hand, raising a single eyebrow at the reaction of pure havoc caused by such a seemingly innocent gesture.

"I thought you said there were ten questions, so why are there only nine?" the uppity voice of none other than Masanori, Ayame's highly strung teammate called out.

"That's because we give you the tenth question fifteen minutes before the end, it's not that complicated. You should be able to understand it by now hopefully, yes?" Asuma sighed.

"Of course," snapped Masanori at the sniggering rippling through the room to his complete stress and anger. He then hurriedly dipped him head back down at his paper, leading many others to do so as well and the room once again sank into silence.

"Wait a second..." Kaida muttered; looking at the paper as thoughts whizzed around her head like fireworks. It was impossibly hard, _too_ impossibly hard. There had to be some hidden reason to all of this, there had to be some secret purpose. Something about cheating, they seemed very centred around it. And what else than to see how _well_ they could cheat? They didn't say they couldn't cheat exactly, just that they couldn't get caught. As she turned her head slowly to glance at her teammates she saw them doing exactly the same thing. The looks in their eyes were the same, full of knowledge and tactics. Very well then, she'd just had to come up with some ingenious way of getting the answers somehow.

She was struck out of her thoughts by a strange trick of the light glinting by her eyes. She shuddered slightly and looked up to see an odd glint in the air which she had grown all too familiar with through her time as a genin. Yes, there was no doubt about it. There was some sort of rainbow in the air. And unless Oki sensei had somehow crept into the room there was only one possible answer – Ayame. So she _was_ right. And she wasn't the only person on the job, by the look of it. Or rather, smell. I sweet and rather overpowering smell wafted past her, reminding her deeply of freshly mown grass and the sweet flowers you'd find in meadows in the fresh springtime. She suddenly felt her eyes becoming heavy, heavy, heavy...

Kaida whacked her hand on the table desperately to snap herself out of the sort of trance she's somehow been put in. The sharp jolt of pain tugged her back into reality's grasp and when she jerked her head up again she could have sworn she saw a deep frown appear onto Masanori's face, of anger. Well then, it looked like someone else has been trying to get the answers, ad from her after all. She didn't know what kind of jutsu he had used on her, but it had almost worked if it wasn't for her sudden sense of purpose that overpowered her.

Well then, she was fed up of defending herself from these attacks, it was best if she was to go into the offensive mode and try and find out some information for herself. Kaida let her hands rest on her lap under the desk and out of view and, when she had checked no-one was looking at her with a hurried glance in all directions, let the chakra build up inside of her and unleashed a jutsu she had kept hidden for a while, she had been planning to use this beauty for later, but ah well, needs must and all.

"Water style – ice sheet jutsu," Kaida muttered quietly under her breath and let her chakra pump up through her body and flow into her mouth until it had her own mouth bulging with power.

Kaida exhaled a heavy breath of air, and while it didn't look like mush it was in essence a highly deadly jutsu just there in front of her with what looked like a wisp of freezing smoke. It drifted almost lazily until it finally settled over the boy in front's blank paper and then a crisp outer shell seemed to form around it. Barely noticeable unless you were looking for it or trained to see it, of course. And how would the chunin know? It wasn't like ice jutsu was common around the hidden leaf village. In fact she was the most recent student out of the academy to use it and the only current shinobi with such a power below johnin rank. There was a minor problem and that was the proctor might sense it, being the only johnin in the room. But he didn't look the sensory type, so no problems seemed to arise there.

The crisp layer of ice settled down on it, and then the boy in front started to write down on the paper in front of him. As the words settled onto his ice coated paper the very same words etched onto Kaida's as if by some mystical power. All she had to do was sit back and hope that the boy in front of her knew what he was doing and the rest of her team would be able to manage fine by themselves.

Mareo sighed reluctantly. It was obvious, what they were meant to do. It was obvious since the start – cheat. Well then, cheat he would. With yet another reluctant huff from his behalf and a quick glance in Chiko and Kaida's direction to check they were just about coping, he started devising a plan of his own. He actually was quite pleased to see Kaida had her ice sheet jutsu out although, while Chiko seemed to be writing, it didn't seem like he was entirely certain. Then again, Chiko was never really certain about anything.

With yet another reluctant sigh Mareo released his chakra from his hand in a sudden bolt of energy and shot it at the power box at the wall, causing it to suddenly burst into flames. A shriek of panic erupted across the room, genin leaping out of their seats in the air surrounding him in surprise, Mareo one of them. Kaida, knowing that this was such a totally uncharacteristic thing for him to do, immediately knew something was afoot. Chiko however, wasn't exactly paying attention as he seemed to genuinely be trying to do the paper.

The details of where he got it weren't exactly confirmed, but by the time he sat back down Mareo's paper was full of answers which happened to be exactly identical to the girl's next to him, and she hadn't be copying him at all, that was for definite. Somehow during the pandemonium Mareo had used it to copy her answers hurriedly and he settled down with a slight contented smirk on his face.

Chiko drew his pen across the line he had just drawn once more. Yes, that seemed just about right. Questions one to nine all seemed in good order, all he had had to do was rely on something he had picked up a while back in the academy, a little skill of his called photographic memory. He hadn't even worried in the slightest since the exam had started since he already knew both the questions and answers before. It wasn't his fault is Asuma had walked past him holding the answer paper before they even went in, and while a quick glance normally wouldn't have hurt anyone, Chiko's photographic memory ensured that everything would go smoothly. It wasn't like he cheated at all, was it? He didn't look at anyone else's answers, he had just followed Asuma as he entered the exam room with the papers, anyone else could have seen it except they wouldn't have. Chiko had this knack of knowing if something was important or not, and sorting it into little categories in his opinion. The only problem was that the tenth question actually hadn't been on the exam paper he had seen, so he had no idea about it all.

And all this time, as the clock had been ticking, names has been yelled out across the room and ninja group by ninja group had slowly been weeded out, until when the three rookies looked up they noticed there were only about half the candidates left, compared to the original hundred or so, that was saying something. Even Mareo jumped slightly when Asuma called out and he realised how many ninja had actually been caught cheating and sent out.

"Listen everyone, it's time for the tenth question," Asuma called, indicating to the clock which proved he was indeed right, "now before we start let me tell you – you may choose not to take the tenth question if you wish, in which case you will quit the chunin exam alongside your team and leave for this year only, you can come back and try again."

Murmurings echoed around the room quietly as they took in this information. Not take the tenth question? Who would choose to do that?

"- but if you fail the tenth question then a random one of your teammates will be banished from the ninja training course _forever._"

A gasp welled up throughout the room and suddenly yells and shrieks of protest erupted throughout.

"Anyone want to back down?" Asuma smiled, "it's okay, you can take the chunin exam later if you wish. A random one of your two teammates will be selected and they will be banished from the course, okay? So anyone want to withdraw?"

The three rookies all felt immensely sick at the same time, dizzy and positively nauseous. Would going forward condemn another teammate? Weren't they more important than becoming a chunin first time around?

"Yes!" a yell shrieked out across the room and, to the rookie's surprise, Ayame stood up with her hand held in the air, "I wish to withdraw. If that's the way it is then that's no ninja way of mine. I wish to become a chunin but I wish to become a ninja even more, and to have that taken away from any of my teammates isn't something I could stand. So that's it, I withdraw."

To everyone's surprised faces, three dense robe clad figures raised to their feet and, after showing a knowing look, nodded simultaneously.

"We, the ninja of the grass, wish to withdraw," one of them hissed in a voice which may well could have come from all three of them.

"Very well, if the two of you teams would like the step outside," Asuma sighed and then surveyed the room, "anyone else?"

"We three ninja from the village hidden in the waterfalls request to withdraw," three bold ninja leapt to their feet and said almost simultaneously, each with an identical scythe looking object pinned in a holster on their back.

"I wish to withdraw," sighed another ninja and all faces whipped around to face him. He had bright red hair shortcut which sat uncomfortable over his headband and two fellow hidden leaf ninja got up with a sigh and followed him out of the door reluctantly but without a word of anguish or hate or anything else.

"I think going is the best option for everyone," sighed a rather glassy eyed looking ninja from the village hidden in the mist, a smile playing across his plasticised features as two masked ninja silently skulked behind him, reluctant on his rather peaceful and tranquil look.

"Okay, anyone else?" Asuma questioned gently, scanning the remaining crowd of about thirty-five shinobi.

"Yes, I'd like to go too!" exclaimed a girl with bright yellow hair spiked around her hair in numerous plaits which seemed to entwine with each other creating spikes. She suddenly bounced out of her seat, a smile playing across her lips as if quitting was the best decision she had ever made. Two equally energetic but male copies of this girl jumped up too and charged out at a constant jog as she did.

"And I," a quiet girl whispered and two rather tough looking ninja glared at her from behind huge skiing goggles that seemed to mask their faces, flexing their muscles in anguish.

There was a quiet pause as the room turned unexpectedly quiet and everyone seemed to crane their neck, waiting for anyone else to withdraw. Yet not one squeak came and the room remained quiet, filed down to about thirty as twenty had just left.

"I-I... I'd like to leave," a tiny voice stammered as Chiko's hand shakily rose into the air, wavering slightly as did his voice. If looks could kill Kaida would have ensured his immediate death right at that very millisecond, but instead all she ensured was a quiet, if reluctant, following with Mareo sighing and dragging his feet as the three of them exited the room, all of that for nothing.

The moment the door slammed behind them Kaida exploded at a quivering Chiko while Mareo seemed to mutter in a dazed state 'I'm free, I'm free'.

"What did you think you were doing Chiko? We would have been fine; you know... why didn't you just leave it? Why couldn't you just have left it? Argh! I can't believe you, you stupid moron!"

"I wouldn't give him such a hard time if I were you," a blonde woman with a rather frightening smile gleamed in a rather frightening way which reminded all of the three young rookies of Oki sensei, her blonde hair arranged in four bunches around her head.

"Who are you and why should you care?" Kaida hissed angrily.

"I'm Temari, the proctor for the second exam, and I should care because he just got you worthless lot into the second exam."

"What!"

"I-I did?"

"_So much for being free_."


	5. What Does She Mean 'Literally?

**A/N: **Sorry for the delay. ;'( Here's the next chapter and soon we'll be into the forest of death and the fun will really start! Thanks so much for all of you and your reviews. And I'd like to dedicate this chapter to "Almiaranger", without whom I would have probably given up ages ago for being the only person reviewing this regularly!

* * *

><p>"-and then I sooo said back to her..." Kaida broke off immediately after she heard what Temari had just announced. "Did you just say... THE FOREST OF DEATH?"<p>

"Well done, took you long enough," sighed Temari bitterly before turning back to the group of twenty-four ninja in front of her. "Okay, we have a reasonably manageable amount of you here so I'm assuming Asuma did his job well enough. Just warning you - the proctor for the next exam is the laziest and most annoying ninja I've ever met, give or take a certain blonde haired kid. Makes sense, after all he_ is_ a guy."

The look in Kaida's face turned from smouldering fury to reluctant admiration at the last few words that spiralled out of Temari's mouth and a slightly smile twitched onto her face which was soon wiped off as Temari continued her taunting sneer.

"As I said before, this is the forest of death. The remaining ninja of you should know by now that only half of you can get out of there in success and it will almost definitely be under that number. Seeing that there are only two dozen of you here that means that the figures for the final exam will almost definitely be in the single digits. You know, in the first Chunin exam I took twenty-one of us got through to the finals and we had to hold a preliminary round first to narrow down the crop of candidates. I very much doubt we'll need to do that this year by the looks of it."

"Come on, get on with it already. We're sooo bored," Kaida sighed under her breath causing Temari to whip her head around immediately, tuning in on Kaida.

"Very well, I will 'get on with it already', as you so aptly put it. This is, as I mentioned before, the forest of death. You twenty-four ninja will be working in your normal squads of three to get both a heaven and an earth scroll and arrive to the tower in the middle of the forest in a five day period otherwise you'll be disqualified. I doubt any of you will so much as touch the current standing record, held by my team I might add, since I see no outstanding promise at the moment and that record is nigh impossible to touch – yes, it's that good. You'll start off with a heaven or an earth scroll and then have to fight or negotiate or bribe other teams to get the scroll off them. Kicking, biting, selling your soul in complete desperation. Anything's allowed and long as you don't open those scrolls! Though we strongly advise you against maiming, dismemberment and causing a fatal outcome towards your opponent. If anyone doesn't like the sound of this speak now or forever hold your tongue, as they would say!"

The way Temari said all this, in complete happiness and in such a blindingly bright tone, astounded the remaining genin as they stared gormlessly at her. Or rather, our three young genin did while others varied from the reaction of practically gnawing their left leg off to simply smirking in a knowing way as the three grass ninja simultaneously did at the other ninja's reactions.

"Very well, if you're all ready you may go and get your scrolls. But first of all I think maybe we should include a little exercise I introduced myself. It's a little exercise to know your opponent's name. I always find it's useful. Let's just hope it's not Orochimaru!" Temari gleamed happily as some flinched at the name, including the grass ninja in memory of the previous events of the chunin exams a while back. It was such an uncharacteristic action that even Mareo turned his head slightly in surprise to see the soon smoothed up faces hidden behind those deep black masks and swirling robes.

"So, this is all we do. We're going to jumble you all up a bit and put you into different teams of three, clashing of villages and the such so you all get to know each other. Introductory exercise, plain nuisance, call it what you like. Now, let's see... you and you and then maybe you, get together and tell each other your name, village, squad members and one thing about yourself. Okay?"

A reluctant grumbling fell over the genin as they were shuffled around like cards in a pack, re-arranging themselves into a bizarre order on the brisk command of Temari.

"I'll start to get yourself kick-started," Temari smiled which turned out to be a bit more of a grimace, "I'm Temari from the village hidden in the sand. My squad members were Gaara and Kankuro who are also my two brothers and if you fight me then once the third moon opens in this fan on my back then you'll have lost the fight."

Kaida found herself staring at a pale and shrunken boy with a withered face and bored look slathered across it, pale blue hair entwined into some sort of bizarre plaits either side of his face and a leaf ninja headband slapped across his forehead. Also Masanori from Ayame's squad reluctantly stood facing the two of them, a disapproving sneer across his face.

"Fancy that, all three of us from the leaf," he sighed and then, after a brief rolling of his eyes, continued with the set instructions. "I am Masanori Ise of the village hidden in leaves. I am on a squad with Ayame Hashimoto and Kin Tanaka and I can safely say that I am a much more proper ninja than either of you!"

He ended with his nose turned briskly up as if in disgust at the two of them. Kaida just couldn't let that go un-noticed though.

"Well _I'm _Kaida Soldem also from the village hidden in the leaves. I'm on a squad with Mareo Inoue and Chiko Hara and this purple streak in my hair, which is sooo cute, came upon me overnight from purely natural and mystical purposes which I cannot and will not divulge to any of you."

"I'm Ryu Ayumu," whispered the blue haired boy quietly, "I'm from the same village as you, my squad members are Kago Yumi and Mitsu Kumiko and I mainly deal in genjutsu."

"Hey, isn't that giving us an advantage or something?" Kaida asked the boy, surprised.

"I guess you could call it that, but I would call it..." the boy finished, drifting off as if he forgot he was speaking at all.

Meanwhile Chiko was stumbling slightly as he explained his name, village and that he really didn't have much to say about himself while glancing furtively around at the two rather intimidating ninja standing around him. One of the masked grass ninja stood next to him, still and unmoving as a corpse. Meanwhile a peppy female ninja from the village hidden in the clouds with bright yellow hair which was somehow plaited into spikes all around her head jogged up and down on the spot, full of passion. The girl, when she finally got to spoke, spend an awful lot of time explaining how she had finally come onto her hairdo and by the time she'd finished Temari was ushering them all back in, the grass ninja having remained quiet.

Mareo reluctantly dragged his feet back from his threesome consisting from a really small and rather innocent looking girl from the village hidden in the mist and a muscular ninja from the village hidden in the waterfalls, a huge sword strapped to his back.

"I hope you all had a great time getting to know each other before you go up against each other," Temari sneered, "so now it's just time to go and get your scrolls and then literally go wild!"

Kaida, Chiko and Mareo shared a knowing look.

"Well I'm going to pulverise them all and sooo ace this exam!"

"I-I'll do my best for you guys..."

"_What does she mean 'literally'?"_


	6. This Will Be Fun

**A/N: **I haven't updated in ages due to computer troubles, but I'm finally updating! ^_^

* * *

><p>"So we got a heaven scroll?" Mareo asked as the threesome scurried hurriedly into the forest of death, scrambling as the metal gate clanged behind them, signalling the start of their three day survival course. A yes, they very well may have become the second course for any lurking beasts hidden in the forest, or even other candidates.<p>

"I-I think so," murmured Chiko under his breath.

"And I wonder who's got that," Mareo sighed, signalling to the heaven scroll gripped tightly into Kaida's hand as if she were afraid she was going to drop it or something stupid like that. Something totally _Kaida _like that, more like.

"May-maybe you could hide it a bit more Kaida," muttered Chiko quietly.

"Huh?" Kaida grunted, clearly distracted, "oh, sorry guys. I was just trying to think out a strategy."

"That could take a while," huffed Mareo.

"Okay..." murmured Kaida, "so say we check out all the ninja we meet first before we attack them, and assess their strength? And before we go into battle we hide the scroll so they can't take it off us or put it somewhere out of reach or something?"

"H-how are we go-going to do t-that?" Chiko said quietly.

"Oh, I don't know. We have lightning, ice and fire type ninjutsu here. Now, we don't want to burn or incinerate our scroll, so that leaves ice. I guess I could cover it in some sort of untouchable ice covering or something, something _really_ cold."

"It'd be _so_ easy to carry around then," Mareo huffed.

"I see your point... maybe if I put it in my ninja tools pack though? Then I wouldn't touch it then, would I?"

"What... what about when you want to get out your nin-ninja tools?" said Chiko in more of a mumble than anything else.

"Err... yeah," muttered Kaida uncertainly. "Say what, I'll shove it in the other half so my ninja tools are safe. Alright?"

"Of... of course," Chiko said.

"Let's go then!" Kaida yelled gleefully and, arm flung outstretched in front of her, she led the group onwards and onto the thick, dense forest awash with all manner of strange beasts and creatures. The manner in which she swung her arm about reminded Mareo rather sinisterly of Oki sensei, and a shiver crept across his spine, chilling him out.

The threesome charged forward into the dense forest, the matted mass of vines, tangled into knots and roped throughout the forest. There was a pause of uncertainty as the ground in front of them gave off a definite earthy scent like freshly overturned earth, the type you'd find at a graveyard site.

"Stop!" the yell was both one of haste and delivered from the mouth of a little girl, and caused the three ninja to screech to a halt and their heads to swivel around to the cause of the voice. To their left a small figure stepped out of the matted tangle of trees encased in the wrath of poisonous ivy, leeching the life out of the poor plants.

The girl who stood by them only just could have come out of the academy recently by the size of her. She had hair as black as the darkest night which was tied up above her head in a roman style so a few mere strands floated by her petite shoulders. She was wearing a black blouse with puffy sleeves and a sort of smoky grey coloured shorts.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Kaida snarled, her face clearly not impressed by the little girl's appearance.

"I'm sorry, it's a trap. The ground in front of you- it's a pitfall. I said it wasn't fair, but they just wouldn't listen to me. I tried, I really did. But I can't do things like this, it's just not my way of the ninja," the little girl gabbled. Mareo's eyes squinted until he spotted what he had been looking for hanging on her neck.

"The ski mask – she's the girl with those two burly ninja," he said, for once not being sarcastic.

"S-so that me, means," stuttered Chiko, his face paling into a crisp snow colour.

"Yes, that means we're here too," a booming voice declared. From the trio's right a pair of bulky ninja almost like giants looming over them stepped out of the echoing darkness the bushes provided. Ski masks covered their faces so their black ski suits encasing their bodies seemed to melt into the rest of them.

"Who are you?" snapped Kaida, glaring the pair down.

"I don't suppose they're enemy ninja," Mareo said in mock surprise.

"You're not very clever, are you?" one of the enemy ninja said, stepping forward towards them in a menacing way. "Step back Hin, we'll deal with this."

The girl referred to as Hin skulked back into the shadows, her glinting chestnut eyes the last the threesome caught of her before she left to retreat to a safe distance while the two looming figures pulled themselves towards the rookies.

"I guess we'll start if you won't," growled one of the two bulky men as they stepped forward, flanking the rookies on either side. And simultaneously they unhooked their swords from behind them and clanked them in front of them, letting the two identical bulky swords flash in the lack of sunlight.

"Kai-Kaida," murmured Chiko nervously at the sight of the two huge swords.

"Oh that's sooo nothing to worry about," grinned Kaida as she brought her hands up in front of her, clasped together in a hand sign. "Let's see about this then, shall we? Water style – ice claw jutsu!"

A shiver rippled through the air as it seemed to turn cold and the frost iced the air around the five ninja glaring each other down. Then, before anyone could do anything else, a huge spike of ice ripped itself out of the ground below the two huge bulky ninja and shot up, grappling around their legs. A shout of surprise called out of their mouths as tendrils of ice wrapped around their legs like an eagle's talons wrapping its way around the prey. The two huge ninja gasped with a sharp intake of surprise as they found their legs paralysed and prevented from moving. A smug smile swiped its way onto Kaida's face and the grin smeared all over her was definitely genuine. "Piece of cake," she said smugly.

Mareo opened his mouth to add a sarcastic comment into the mix before a cracking sound splintered across the forest and the ice claws surrounding the two huge ninja's legs shattered into miniscule shards.

"I agree," one of the bulky ninja said smugly, "piece of cake. Now let the battle begin!" And with that he swung his huge sword out of the ice, cracking the ice smothering it into smithereens.

"Bring it on!"

"Oh, if y-you really want."

"_This will be fun."_


End file.
